Interview (Part 2): Craig Borten
I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig co-wrote, I reached out to him for an interview and Craig agreed. We had a great one-hour conversation.
Today in Part 2, Craig describes the labyrinthine path Dallas Buyers Club took to get produced:
Scott: In 1992 when you told Ron with that sort of youthful bravado, you’re going to get this movie made, I’m sure you had no idea the circuitous route it would take, 20 years, several stops and starts.
Could you walk us through some of the stages along the way? There were various casts, commitments and director packages, and close calls.
Craig: Sure. It took me a couple of years to write it. After that, I was in a basketball game with a producer named Chris Moore, and I gave him the script when I was done.
He read it, and he said, “I love it. I want to give you some money and option it, and let’s go try to get it done.” I forget how long our option was, but Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would sometimes play in that game.
I’d go to Chris’ office, and he had a big dry‑erase, or blackboard, and on one side it would say, “Dallas Buyers Club,” and on the other side was “Good Will Hunting.” That was kind of neat.
That option ran out, and then I connected with a couple of producers named Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal, and they were, at the time, I think working for Peter Guber, and we developed it. They gave me a little money.
Then we went out to the agencies, and I ended up getting an agent at CAA. They had given the script, I think at that time it was Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Woody Harrelson. Woody Harrelson took to it, and then we got Dennis Hopper attached to direct.
That was our package. We went out to the studios and we met with Columbia, Woody had a deal there at the time. Woody wanted to get it made. He didn’t want to get into a development deal.
We ended up not doing a deal with them, then we went to a small company called Banner Entertainment Brian Drummond started with Mickey Liddell, and we developed it there.
They dissolved a year later, year and a half later. Then I met this indie producer, David Bushell, who I developed it with, and right around that time I had met Melisa Wallack. Melissa and I worked on a book adaptation together, and I thought she was a fantastic writer. She read the script and had great ideas. Basically, I said, “Why don’t you dive in with me?”
At that time, I think it was 2001, there had been four options, and I needed some help. Melissa came in, and we worked on it together. At that point we got Brad Pitt. My friend Robbie Brenner, who had been a fan of the script from the first draft to the last, had gotten involved, and she went to NYU with Mark Forster, and she gave it to Mark.
We met with Mark, and then Mark said he was going to give Brad Pitt, and then we got Brad Pitt, and we sold it to Universal. Universal wanted to get a couple of other writers. They got a couple of other writers, and then Brad Pitt and Mark Forster dropped out. Ryan Gosling and Craig Gillespie got involved.
Then nothing really happened, and I got a call from Robbie one day. She said, “I’m going to get ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ out of Universal,” and I got Matthew McConaughey, and Jean‑Marc Valle. That was the beginning of another crazy journey that year of getting the film made.
That’s kind of a shorthand for 20 years. There’s many others in between, producers, studios, interests from actors and directors.
Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Matthew McConaughey, Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack
Scott: How did you handle yourself emotionally, all the ups and downs?
Craig: I think at a certain point, what people don’t realize is, Hollywood’s so tough. All anyone’s trying to do is get something made, and what people don’t realize is, it’s a town of ones. You need to have one real good success, and you can use that as a jumping off point.
The years go by, and in all honesty, I was like, “I don’t even know what else I’m going to do.” There were intermittent jobs in between, some writing gigs, nothing huge, although when we sold it to Universal, that was a nice sale, but there was gigs here and there. Just trying to get by and survive. It’s hard.
Scott: I remember once on a set of one of my movies, a producer was looking around at all the crew there and he said, “You know, Scott, it’s a miracle any movie gets made.”
Craig: It is.
Scott: The budget for Dallas Buyers Club was really tight. I believe I read somewhere how the all-in budget for the makeup department was something like $300.
Craig: I don’t know what the actual budget was, but I think we made the whole film for about five and a half million, give or take a few hundred grand here and there.
Tomorrow in Part 3, Craig and I dig into the key characters in Dallas Buyers Club.
To read Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Craig is repped by UTA.
The 33 opens in North America, Friday, November 13th.
The movie’s website here.
Twitter: @CraigBorten.